Abortion clinics reopen across the state

By Brian Rosenthal and Mark Collette, Austin Bureau

October 16, 2014Updated: October 16, 2014 9:27pm

Video: Texas abortion clinics back open; for time being

AUSTIN — Five health centers across Texas resumed scheduling abortions Wednesday morning, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court halted new regulations on the procedure until a legal challenge has been settled.

Express Newsletters

Get the latest news, sports and food features sent directly to your inbox.

At least two other abortion facilities — including one in McAllen — are expected to reopen by the end of the week, which would bring the number of clinics in the state to 15 — nearly twice as many as there were before the high court intervened.

Ginny Braun said she spent Tuesday afternoon removing paintings from the walls of her Dallas office at the Routh Street Women's Clinic, making calls to help her employees find new jobs and starting the process of selling the building that has housed her abortion clinic for nearly two decades.

By early Wednesday, following the unexpected court order, she found herself doing something much different: scheduling appointments for women seeking abortions.

Photo: Associated Press / File Photo

Whole Woman's Health plans to reopen its McAllen clinic by the end of the week, again giving the Rio Grande Valley an abortion provider.

Whole Woman's Health plans to reopen its McAllen clinic by the end...

“We're all shocked, to be honest,” Braun said by phone, adding that she already had booked four patients for initial visits. “I'm delighted that there has finally been some justice dealt this state, and we will go forward from today.”

The facilities shuttered when a federal appeals court ruled Oct. 2 to green-light the regulations, which require abortion clinics to meet the expensive standards of hospital-style surgical centers. Abortion providers are challenging the regulations as unnecessary and unconstitutional, while supporters say they protect women's health.

Activists on both sides said they didn't expect the majority of the Supreme Court to act.

“It was extremely disappointing to see clinics that had closed come back to life again,” said Karen Garnett, executive director of the anti-abortion Catholic Pro-Life Committee.

Staffers at the Suburban Women's Clinic and Surburban Women's Medical Center in Houston, Routh Street and Abortion Advantage in Dallas and the Austin Women's Center said Wednesday they again were scheduling abortion patients. Another local facility, the Houston Women's Clinic, was set to open Thursday.

Whole Woman's Health, which is leading the lawsuit against the regulations, said it will reopen its McAllen clinic by week's end, again giving the Rio Grande Valley an abortion provider.

That facility also got a reprieve from the Supreme Court from a separate requirement that abortion doctors obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

But in El Paso, where a clinic called Reproductive Services also got a reprieve from both requirements, it was unclear whether it or another clinic would reopen.

The license of Reproductive Services expired during the lawsuit, a spokeswoman said, and officials had not decided whether to apply for a new one now or wait for the end of the legal battle.

El Paso, the 19th-biggest city in America, is currently the largest in the country without an abortion facility, although there is one in nearby Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

Abortion providers said it can be difficult for clinics to reopen, especially because some already have sold their buildings or allowed staffers to take new jobs amid weeks of legal limbo.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman's Health, said in a conference call with reporters that she already had laid off half of her company's staff, let leases expire and moved furniture from a closed Austin clinic to a new facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, partly aimed at serving Texas women.

“One of the most difficult things for me far and away as the leader of this company is (the uncertainty),” said Miller, adding she has incurred more than $500,000 in debt trying to preserve the ability to reopen clinics. “It has been excruciating that I cannot provide for my employees the stability that they deserve.”

Nonetheless, Miller said Whole Woman's Health is considering reopening clinics in Austin and Fort Worth. One in Beaumont will remain closed, she said.

Braun said Routh Street had lost several staff members and barely managed to start up abortion services again.

“We've got some challenges to overcome,” she said, “but for the handful of us that are critical here, we will get the job done.”